Wonder Girl roared back at the Genomorphs as the others ran by. She leap at one, began to beat it down despite the size difference. Wonder Girl tackled the beast as it pounded its fist on to her. As she tossed the mammoth into the wall, the hall began to shake and rumble.
"Wonder Girl!" yelled Aquagirl, "We want to escape by the elevator, not by digging our way out!"
"YOU WANT ESCAPE?!" Wonder Girl roared throwing one of the mammoths at the two others blocking the passage they had come from.
Aquagirl pried the doors open, KF was the first in, jumping onto the ridge of the shaft. Robin fired his grappling hook into the darkness. Wonder Girl grabbed Aquagirl by the waist. Wonder Girl had a tight grip on the redhead as she launched herself up the shaft towards freedom and then started to fall.
"I...I'm falling," she whispered the words not really believing them as they tumbled backwards, a sudden jerk snapping her out of her trance. Looking up, she found Aquagirl holding onto a arrow embedded into the wall. "Wonder Woman can fly... Why can't I fly?"
"Don't know," Kid Flash said, helping Wonder Girl jump off and the onto the small outcropping around the edge of the shaft, "but it looks like you can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Still cool."
Wonder Girl turned to Aquagirl and says, "Thank you."
"Guys! This'll have to be our exit!" Robin drew their attention the moving elevator descending towards them.
Wonder Girl broke the doors off and they all jumped into a hall on Sub-Level 15. The four of them darted through immediately, narrowing miss being squished by the elevator car. In the hallway they were meet by a group of G-Raptors and G-Trolls. Again.
The group began to run away from a group of Genomorphs charged down the hall at them.
"Turn left, left!" The clone ordered, they all complied, after a moment "Right!" They once again followed her only to be led down to an empty corridor.
"Great directions, Wondey. You trying to get us re-podded!" Kid Flash yelled.
"I. . . I don't understand." She replied.
"Don't apologize!" Robin pushed to the front of the group "This is perfect!"
Grateful for Wonder Girl for tearing the grate cover off, as she helps the others up into the vent. As they piled in after him, Robin paused quickly going through in his head what to do next. Security! Thankful that Cadmus was stupid enough to leave him and the others their gear, he quickly started to disable everything and soon they were invisible.
From behind Aquagirl he heard Kid Flash already start to complain.
"At this rate we'll never get out of here." Like he would mind he view he had Robin thought, but he did a point. They did needed to move faster. But with the very limited space around was next to impossible.
"Ssshh!," Wonder Girl whispered. "Do you hear that?"
In the distance he could hear the echoed scratching. Claws on metal.
"G-Raptors," Aquagirl said.
With every second those kids are still roaming about his building alive, Desmond was getting more and more irritated. He, Guardian, Roquette, and Dubbilex ran down the hallway with a squad of Genomorphs. Desmond was tracking them down on his datapad.
"Someone, Robin, I'd wager, managed to hack our systems, deactivated internal security cameras. But he neglected the motion sensors!" Desmond said as they were following the signal, which led them to a men's bathroom. "The Genomorphs are closing in, we've got them cornered."
A few seconds later, the vent popped open, but it wasn't the four teenagers who flew out, it was the pursuing Genomorphs, who fell out on top Desmond and the others.
Desmond angrily pushed the Genomorph on top of him away. "He hacked our motion sensors." he growled.
"I hacked the motion sensors." Robin smiled proudly as he closed his holo-computer.
"Sweet," Kid Flash's head appeared out of the grate.
"Yes. Good work Robin," Aquagirl complimented, smiling at him.
Wonder Girl grunted her approval from the vent as she helped Caitlin out.
"But there's till plenty of room between us and out."
"Yeah, but I finally got room to move." And with that he was with a gust of wind.
They managed to catch up with him as they reached the top, "More behind us!" Robin shouted! There was a few G-Elves trailing behind them, that is until Wonder Girl super-stomped to cause the stairs to give out.
Inside of a high-speed elevator was Desmond and his group, hoping to make the top floor before they do.
"Lockdown has been activated to cut them off on Sub-Level 1, we'll ambush them there." assured Guardian.
"You better, or the board will have our heads for this." said Desmond as he grips his hand over his neck. "My head." he muttered to himself. He knows that all this mess would be fallen onto Desmond. He's in charge of Cadmus so anything wrong that happens in the facility, the blame is immediately his. As they're about to reach pass Sub-Level 5, Desmond pressed the emergency stop so he can leave Guardian and Dubbilex to handle the five on their own, "I need to get something Project Blockbuster. I'll meet you on Sub-Level 1," said Mark as the elevator closed.
As they finally reached the sub-level 1, the hall is lit up in red, and sirens blaring all around them. Then a thick blast door between and freedom though, and Aquagirl had to suppress a giggle as she saw Kid learned the hard way of how solid it was.
"We're cut off from the street." Aquagirl said, skidding to a halt in front of him.
"Really, my head didn't noticed. Thanks."
Even with the combined strengths of Wonder Girl and Aquagirl, it wasn't enough for them to break open the door, as Robin couldn't hack fast enough for them to open the door as more Genomorphs made their way towards them.
"This way," Robin shouted breaking open a nearby door, and lead them through, and to be met with Guardian and a legion of G-Gnomes.
The four all prepared to fight, but the red flow of their eyes illuminating the corridor in an eerie light.
"Damn it!" Robin whispered so quietly he wasn't even sure Wonder Girl could hear it. This couldn't happen. They couldn't have beaten them up here. He had taken the fastest route, did he? Maybe in the vents if he hadn't...
The thoughts started to weigh him down, pushing his lithe form to the ground. Around him he could just make out the bodies of hid companions crumpled around him. As his head the cold metal floor he saw one of the G-Gnomes began approaching Wonder Girl and then everything went to black.
Never get too cocky, Grayson. You need to do better than this.
I'm sorry mom and dad. Bruce. Barbara. Alfred. . .
No. Come on. Not now. She can't give up when she's so close to seeing the sun. The moon. Grass. The darkness punched her down. Forcing her back to the emptiness of her pod then it started to recede.
/Perhaps for the sake of all Genomorphs,/ a voice spoke to her n her mind, telepathy, /our sister Wonder Girl should be allowed to make her own decisions. Don't you agree, Dr. Roquette.?/
/Of course./ Caitlin said . /That's what were doing right?/
Wonder Girl's eyes snapped open and she found herself facing Serling and the labcoat wearing Genomorph from before. Dubbilex. The only Genomorph smart enough to be accepted onto Cadmus science team. Working along with a scientist who mysteriously transferred when she was created.
/It was you,/ Wonder Girl responded telepathically. /You both planned this from the start./
/Yes sister. Miss Roquette set the fire that lured your new friends down into Cadmus and I lured your friends down to Sub-Level 52 and directed you to your pod./
/Why do all of this?,/ the clone asked.
/Because you are hope them,/ Serling answered. /A Genomorph Champion./
/Correct,/ Dubbilex responded. /You will blaze a trail for all our siblings, showing us the way to live among humans./
At this a buzz of clicking and growls rippled through the gathered Genomorphs. The overpowering red beginning to fade down to almost nothing. To the left of his vision, Wonder Girl could see Guardian's G-Gnome leap from its perch and Guardian stumbled for a bit before Caitlin caught as he takes a sharp breath of air. Behind her she heard the string of her friends as they awoke.
Dubbilex ask, /What is you choice my sister?/
She rose to his feat and stood tall because this was a choice she'd already made forty-two floors ago.
"I choose freedom." Although her face remained stone, Wonder Girl could almost see the smile on Dubbilex's face.
"Guardian?" Aquagirl questioned, her voice mixed with concern and suspicion.
"Go. I'll deal with Desmond." His face was hard. The face of a newly freed slave about to face his former master. He recognized it.
"I think not." The G-Gnomes parted revealing the Doctor standing there a vial that made Serling uncomfortable. "Project blockbuster will give me the power to restore order to Cadmus."
All that everyone could do was watch as Desmond threw back his head drinking the vial in one gulp. The smaller G-gnomes began to screech and tried to push themselves away from him, as he writhed in pain and his body transformed. His skin bubbled and burst, with blue flesh expanding outwards. His clothes ripped and his hair fell away to nothing and it roared.
